ICTs and Indian Social Change : Diffusion Poverty Governance

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction: ICTs and Indian social change--an agenda of concerns/Ashwani Saith and M. Vijayabaskar. 2. Culture of technology and ICTs/Sundar Sarukkai. 3. Sustainable internet connectivity in rural India/Ashok Jhunjhunwala and Anuradha Ramachandran. 4. Two mutually reinforcing applications of ICT for socio-economic development of India/Rajesh Jain, Atanu Dey, Reuben Abraham and Vivek Padmanabhan. 5. ICTs and poverty alleviation: hope or hype?/Ashwani Saith. 6. Decrypting e-governance: narratives, power play and participation in the Gyandoot intranet/T.T. Sreekumar. 7. Crossing a chasm: technologies, institutions and policies for developing a regional IT industry/Nirvikar Singh. 8. The electronic grassrooting of democracy: a case for community radio/Vinod Pavarala. 9. Wired watchdogs: how ICTs are aiding civil society to enhance public accountability/Gopakumar Krishnan Thampi. 10. Influence of software trade on development of web-enabled governance initiatives: comparative perspectives of Indian and UK experiences/Amit Mitra and Alwyn Didar Singh. 11. Evaluating the developmental impact of e-governance initiatives: an exploratory framework/Shirin Madon. 12. Ricocheting gender equations: women workers in the call centre industry/Piush Antony and V. Gayathri. 13. Constructing work and identity in the Indian outsourced ITES sector/M. Vijayabaskar. 14. Ethnic transnational middle classes in formation: a case study of Indian Information Technology professionals/Xiang Biao. 15. Virtual India: Indian IT labour and the nation-state/Peter Van Der Veer. 16. Uncanny networks: pirate, urban and the new globalization in India/Ravi Sundaram. Index.

"ICTs and Indian Social Change: Diffusion, Poverty, Governance is the first book of its kind that puts together the optimistic voices of techno-idealists, critical social science perspectives on technology and a range of empirical material on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the lives of people. The book traces these processes across urban and rural spaces of work, consumption, e-governance, and highlights the new kinds of social identities they are fostering in India. It opens up an arena for dialogue between activists, technologists, policy makers and academia on using ICTs for development.

The book is a logical sequel to ICTs and Indian Economic Change: Economy, Work, Regulation that addressed the implications of the growth of ICT-based sectors in India for macro-economic development and industrial efficiency. This volume views the diffusion of ICTs in India primarily in the socio-cultural realm. In responding to the pioneering voices of innovators in ICTs, it provides empirical and theoretical assessments and critiques of some of the important, though often latent, premises that underlie these powerful initiatives." (jacket)